– Your comments, likes, etc. are appreciated. I haven’t really said this in a while, but you guys make what I do a lot of fun, even those of you who just show up to tell me I’m gay and wrong. Perhaps you the most. Thank you for a great year.

– You can find out about the movie I made here and here. Post-production, baby! Also, follow that wrestling promotion I work for/am increasingly involved in helping run here. Our next show is in Austin on Sunday. It’s got Chris Hero, Takaaki Watanabe, a wrestling librarian and a big dude with a burlap sack for a head on it. You should be there.

Please click through to enjoy the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for December 30, 2013.

I’m trying to understand why Ziggler v. Axel got a worst. It was a competent match between two mid-card guys that we haven’t seen together a million times before. In a three-hour show, this is time that could have been spent on another poorly scripted backstage segment or another Ambienesque Authority promo, but no, we got a decent Wrestling Match on our Wrestling Show. To me, that’s a Best all day.

Zig verse Ax has actually happened several times on Smackdown, Main Event, and a few RAW’s. More to the point, what Brandon said is true for me. Neither of them is going anywhere at the moment, so who cares?

I really really enjoyed the ending of this, and had to console my fiancée that everything was going to turn out alright for Bryan and he wasn’t REALLY a bad guy because joining the Wyatts made sense.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about this episode (outside of Sandow/Khali and that godawful Divas match) was that I think Langston should have come out when Mark Henry was getting beaten up, even if it was only to stare down Lesnar and then rush to Henry’s side.

And I think Kane should have appeared at the end of the episode, either to save Bryan or reveal himself as the inside man. I know he was busy in Toronto but dammit he could have made it.

If they ever do the “Kane is an inside man” angle, the proper way is for them to wait til HHH is feeling in control, standing next to Stephanie and Kane, and Bray to pop up and ‘trigger’ Kane into attacking the McMahons.

I found myself wondering if Kaitlyn was paired with Eva Marie in the Divas match because Kaitlyn was the only one in that match competent enough to make Eva Marie’s “offense” look like anything less than total garbage. Or maybe whatever agent plotted out that match was hoping that Kaitlyn would get stiff with Eva and just send her away for a while.

And Aksana’s weird, mid-tempo porno sax music underscored the complete lack of reaction from the crowd after that match. That must feel like shit (for those who actually care).

I read that someone at a house show yelled at Kailtyn “Why are you losing to them!?” after another Total Divas vs. Partial Divas match and Kaitlyn just shrugged at him.
It seems she’s just learned to deal and I assume the other girls have as well.

I am (cautiously) very optimistic about where the Bryan Wyatt angle could go. While there is a very real possibility they could screw it up like they have in the past, this angle could be used to 1. elevate the Bray 2. have the Wyatt family’s support being the missing ingredient to get Bryan over the top (because his story for the last 6 months has been he is missing something) or 3. do both of these things.

Also, if this is a long-tern angle I almost wonder if HBK doesn’t come back if this leads to not Cena vs. Bray Wyatt, but Cena vs. Bryan as a part of the Wyatt family.

You can tell after the Shield dissolve that Reigns will be a face and Ambrose a heel because Ambrose (despite being dismissed by his friends) cheered on Rollins and actively tried to help Rollins win while Reigns made patronizing duck faces and “you’re beneath me” gestures when Rollins sought support. Enjoy Reigns while you can, because they’re going to make him a Sheamus Uso beckoning us to call 1-800-DASPEAR and similar insipid crap.

I honestly want them not to screw this up more than I ever wanted them not to screw up Bryan’s original title prospects. SummerSlam through HIAC was the chance to put the strap on a guy who was popular and capable and deserved it, but it was really just a brass ring. This is PLOT. A chance for interesting things to happen in a sensible order over a long period of time that leads to the development of characters beyond their status quo gimmicks. A chance to be the Good Pro Wrestling that’s so much better than anything else in the universe.

I have ideas, because my brain is perpetually set on “EXTRAPOLATE”. I don’t think they matter. There are plenty of ways to lay out this story. What’s important is that this is Road to Wrestlemania, Day One. There is more than enough meat on this bone to carry through April. WWE needs to scrape together their last dregs of creative fortitude, outline a long-term plan, and see this one through to the end.

If Bryan’s turn had happened last week, I would have asked for a coherent four-month story arc for Christmas.

or doing that cool thing I want him to do where Kane’s his “inside man” and they realize the Wyatts want to bring down the machine as much as they do to usurp Triple H from power and bring true, community-run anarchy to WWE.

I had that same thought when the Daniel Bryan joining the Wyatt Family segment was going on. My mind instantly want “Holy shit, Kane WAS converted by the Wyatt Family and he’s a plant inside The Authority so that he can earn their trust then stab them in the back and help destroy them from the inside when the time is right. Daniel Bryan has figured out that he can’t beat the authority by conventional means because they will always just screw him over, so he’s making a deal with the devil and joining The Dark Side (or pretending to) because he realizes that the only way to destroy this evil is with an even more sinister evil.”

I was really excited about that for about a minute until it dawned on me that a storyline like that requires long term planning, subtlety in writing, and committing to something over the span of some 4-8 months or so and not wavering from it. *sigh*

I’m not one to brag, but us Toronto fans got to see 3MB (actually, just Jinder and Drew, along with Ricardo) dressed as The Mounties. Plus, we saved you from an appearance by New Years Eve Baby Big Show. He was fighting Kane at the house show, with Christian as Guest Ref.

The face version of everything sucks, though. You think heel Sheamus would have hung out with the Muppets? And the old Mark Henry wouldn’t have played “Good Santa,” he would have inducted him into the Hall of Pain. Punk gets singled out because of *how good* he is as a heel.

Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I made top 10! I’m so giddy right now!
Okay with that out of my system: there were so many things that went right last night the only true downer for me was the commentary team again. I know it’s beating a dead horse but can you imagine JR’s reaction to D-Bry joining the Wyatt’s? “He is now in league with Beelzebub, ladies and gentlemen!” *sigh* Goddess, give me the strength to accept those things I cannot change.

“GOOD GAWD ALMIGHTY! DANIEL BRYAN IS MAKING BRAY WYATT PAY FOR HIS SINS! MY GOODNESS! HE JUST ABOUT TOOK HIS DAMN HEAD OFF WITH THAT KNEE!” (See, even writing imaginary JR commentary is fun as imagining the man himself saying these things)

Oh! I almost forgot! JBL was talking about cosplaying Lawler last night and it got me thinking. What if we all cosplay our favorite Old School wrestlers for Raw next week and post pictures in the open thread? I call dibs on Sensational Sherri!

I too would rather see Henry/Bork, however I really want to see Big E defend the title at the rumble against someone with some name recognition. It would be cool to see him get a signature win against someone who’s held a bigger belt before but doesn’t have anything else going on. ADR or someone like that..

Great report as usual, especially the bits about Brock and Bryan. I’m darn well hoping that this doesn’t lead to Cena/Bray at Mania, however, as that leaves Bryan doing nothing at all on Wrestlemania, if it’s them fighting over Bryan. If Cena and Bryan are both busy with the Wyatts, what the heck could our title match for Mania be? Punk isn’t really in any place to be a world title challenger right now. Brock could be, but there’s no way they’d have him fighting heel Orton at Mania. Are we seriously entertaining the thought of Batista in the main event of Mania? Because ugh.

Also: I figured people would be all over it in the comments, but since I haven’t seen it; am I the only one who thought Eva Marie’s shorts gave the appearance of a giant gaping butthole?

most of us are wishing for lesnar/bryan, right? especially with both lesnar joining the authority side (for money or whatever) and bryan joining the opposite with the family (to bring the machine down). although I’d prefer cena/bryan 2 on mania for now.

If WWE can commit to the storyline, and just keep progressing it, I think they’ll be hard pressed to really screw it up. I’m pushing for Bryan vs Punk at EC and Bryan vs HHH at WM30 as my own hopes for this storyline.

Like someone said before, I want them to avoid screwing this up ever more than the Title push over the summer. Bray is completely right, this has a chance to “change everything”

man, if you want a win at mania that’ll “mean something” and be worth the waiting after he BEAT JOHN CENA CLEAN AT SUMMERSLAM, WHICH IS ANOTHER REALLY BIG PPV, FOR THE WWE TITLE or whatever, beating the GM triple h in 2013 and WM30 isn’t it at all…

you know what it would be, actually? beating the streak! beating the undertaker at WM30 would be worth it, and bryan would be the only name I can ever think of that would beat the streak and still survive the hate from the old wrestling fans (especially if bray wyatt helps him to do it because he wants to be the new undertaker)! and taker was reported many times that he wants to pass that torch to someone that is young (bryan is 30 years old only!) to put him over for years.

there’s litterally no reason for all of that to not happen unless bryan is winning the world title at mania or mcmahon is stupid and would drop the ball. but beating hhh at mania?! hhh is like the only guy that would make me not want to see a daniel bryan match…

As bad as HHH is, I’d pay big money to see him eat a Busaiku knee or tap to Bryan at Wrestlemania. I mean, not many things in the world are better than my favorite wrestler going over my least favorite wrestler in the biggest wrestling event of the year.

@themo, you need to stop thinking about what you want to see and think what average fans think. Its great that we love him, but beating HHH at WM30 means a lot to the average fan in the “Wow, he beat that guy? That guy is/used to be awesome!” (Yes, fans still think he’s awesome, because he still gets cheered anytime he’s in front of a non-smark crowd). Your “old-school” fans would see it as HHH, a guy who was always near or on top for a whole generation of WWE, passing the torch to Bryan.

And no one is beating Taker for the Streak. I’m pretty damn sure at this point WWE would rather just be able to retire that into their lore. If he were to lose/pass the torch to anyone, it be directly to Bray, because of the whole “Bray is the new demonic force” bit. Indirectly passing it to Bray would just be awkward and old school fans would never accept it.

I’d be fine with the streak retiring clean. I guess I just listed taker as an example of a man that beating him would mean something big AND still give a great match.

if you want him to beat someone from the ~attiude era~ to make the old people love bryan (though I’m not sure anyone still doesn’t love him), let him face HBK. it’s been built well, too.

but like I said, he already beat cena, dude. CENA! “clean”!! at summerslam!!! for the wwe title!!!!!

and I’m not against him facing hhh even if it doesn’t appeal to me in this age and time, but not on WM30. make it on some RAW or elimination champer or extreme rules or something and I won’t mind at all. but man, don’t waste the most over guy in your company at the only night where micheale cole saying “THIS IS THE BIGGEST NIGHT IN WWE’S HISTORY!” would be right with the 30th anniversary on a grudge match for nothing…

He beat Cena – and then prompty lost to Orton because of HHH, and went on to be screwed over and over by HHH. Average fans don’t see him beating Cena, they see that he never held on to the title for more than a day. Beating Cena clean means nothing to average people if he loses 5 minutes later.

Not to mention – it’s not WM. It’s pretty well proven that WWE gets a lot of one-time buys for WM, and its where you set the tone for the future (Which is why the Rock matches have been so idiotic).

Beating HHH is more than a grudge. HHH is the man who has been ruining DBry’s rise to the top ever since he beat Cena. He’s the guy whose told everyone that DBry isn’t worth a shit. If Bryan beats HHH, and HHH admits he was wrong about Bryan, that’s a huge endorsement to Bryan. Much bigger than HBK saying “Oh right, you were good, I knew that already and said it already.”

If you think people still don’t love Bryan, go read boards on places like Bleacher Report. There’s still plenty of people yelling “BRYAN’S NOT MAIN EVENT, HE’S A LOSER, GO CENA!” (Or Orton, or whoever) or “BRYAN LOOKS SO STUPID, GOAT FACE!”. It’s sobering to see how lots of the average fans cling to Orton and Cena and are against guys like Bryan and Bray.

well, thanks for warning me so that I’d never end up there one day. and although I believe you, my mind just can’t believe that there are as much stupids online like that… I mean, you look at the crowds in wwe, and not one man, woman or child not go full “YES! YES! YES!” and “DAN-IEL BR-YAN!” all the time every week any city even when they’re almost asleep all the rest of the show.

if people completely sh*tting on hhh and shutting him and every other important world champion in wwe’s history in favor for bryan that one RAW segment a few weeks back doesn’t mean that no one cares about hhh anymore and everybody cares about bryan, I don’t know what would… maybe go back and watch the wrestlemania match with hhh and lesnar, if you want. my least favourite match of the year. lesnar never had such a quite, bored and asleep crowd for a match of his as that, I think…

and does hhh still not believe in bryan or whatever? they gave him that match vs orton at RAW after TLC admitting he’s the superstar of the year and all. I just.. I just still can’t see bryan being booked on mania 30 with hhh of aaaaaaall people as anything other than the biggest wasted opportunity from wwe in god knows how long (and that says a LOT with them missing opportunities left and right almost on a weekly basis!)

@lulzovich didn’t we see that already in HIAC (and the ten times they replayed it after)?

Considering we just had Bryan asking for a simple match vs. Bray and getting screwed into a gauntlet match just to mess with him, followed by Bryan admitting that the Authority is keeping him down and he needs to destroy it, I think HHH definitely still kayfabe doesn’t believe in Bryan. God only knows what they really think backstage, but on screen they still aren’t handing him actual title shots or giving him true opportunities for the title (the Raw match was never for the title, and was forgotten about instantly by HHH).

The match after TLC seemed more like the aggravating flip-flop of HHH, where he jumps from being evil to the good guy for no apparent reason, screwing with Orton, then back to evil the next week.

I agree that the match itself may or may not be as great as Bryan could have with others, but I think as far as elevating Bryan, the two top things are 1) Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (god thats a mouthful) or 2) Bryan beating HHH clean and having HHH raise and shake his hand afterwards. We’ll have to see how the Rumble pans out to see if #1 is even possible.

And you can’t base THAT much on the Bryan segment a few weeks back. That was his (mostly) home crowd, I’d have been disappointed if they didn’t go nuts for him.

@themosayat Keep in mind that, even though HHH ate a knee, Bryan got laid out and lost the match a second after that, which doesn’t really fall under my (and probably a lot of other people’s) definition of “going over” someone. Bryan needs a grand stage where, after all this bullshit, he ALONE beats HHH, center of the ring, 1-2-3 or via submission and have that be the one thing to elevate him to true god-tier in everyone’s (well, at least most of WWE fans) eyes.

If that final rendezvous is supported and/or set up by the Wyatts, even better. About time there’s a hero who can’t stop the dark side on his own and teams up with NOT CENA to stop the biggest of baddies and all of his lackeys.

oh, yeah. as long as that’ll actually change stuff, and maybe let hhh start giving more people like bryan (punk, ziggler, etc) chances after it because he got a newfound respect for them because of bryan. and not only finish with hhh shaking bryan’s hands just to get sympathy from some of those that hate him and get those “thank you, triple h!” chants only, and then not follow up…

I’m still wishing that we get bryan/taker, though. or bryan/lesnar. or bryan/cena 2 for the belt. but I’m not holding hope for that bryan/punk/cena triple threat match anymore…

that’d confirm that it’s more about money and entertainment or whatever, than art and wrestling, if it wasn’t confirmed already.

hey, I’d actually like to see hogan with cena teaming in a comedy special attraction match for mania! but not vs the wyatts and bryan, one of the most serious storylines in memory -_-

goes back to my point. bryan should not be wasted on any match other than the main event for the world title (which will make this f*cking story logical, because bryan joined them in first place just to help him beat the authority and actually win the damn thing!) or the streak (which wouldn’t be an opportunity I’d pass on, especially for WM30! bryan to beat the streak!!!)

Love the idea of Bad News Barrett getting crazier and crazier entrances. His final form would have to be him piloting some sort of Bad News Barrett Gundam and slicing the roof of the arena open with a beam saber to deliver the bad news.

The thought of Bryan being stuck back in the mid card didn’t even cross my mind until I read your break down. I saw it more as The Wyatts beings dragged up rather than DB dragged down. I thought it was cool.

Bryan as Darth Vader to Wyatt’s Emperor may have me in MAX SPLOOSH MODE. Bryan finally succumbing to the adversity reminded me of the ending to 1984, too. He loved Big Brother. Well done, WWE. Also, shouldn’t have Punk gotten a mini-best for flipping off Ambrose?

“I love this so much. His method of delivering bad news should get more and more complex until he’s piloting a giant mech with BAD NEWS BARRETT across the chest. He can interrupt jokey segments from an orbiting Bad News Barrett space station or something. Make him a thousand feet tall. Give him a Galactus helmet. GO ALL THE WAY.”

God damn, Punk’s offense has been even sloppier than usual in the match vs Rollins. I know he’s never been a good athlete, but that Welcome to Chicago, Motherfucker backbreaker, the rope-hung submission and the small package were all messed up in a quick succession, it was really weird.

Anyway, I’m 100% with you on the Wyatt/Bryan thing, all the way to the complete lack of optimism and belief that it’ll end well. NOTHING ever ends well in WWE, (ir)regardless of how good the Road To Destruction (TM) is.

Punk called the match with Rollins garbage on Twitter and I can see where he’s coming from. It was WAY too fast paced making all the build up almost nada, and when they went to do a big move it didn’t mean anything. You could go as far to call it a spot fest. As for the force thing, Punk’s probably been told to tone down his knees because if you look at him doing it in 2011, or 12 they were SO MUCH STIFFER and know it looks like he’s T-Bagging the guy. Someone must’ve bitched about it, because that’s the only reason I can imagine him toning it down.

By the way, Punk is so popular with the fans at this point… like God level, to the point that I can’t imagine a heel turn with him working at all. Its crazy how much stuff changes, a year ago Punk was not getting face reactions like this, now he’s the go to guy if someone wants to look good, and almost always gets a huge reaction out of the crowd.

Its almost as if he’s becoming too fucking safe though, he went from the underdog in Rocky, to being that corporate sell out Rocky in Rocky 3, where he has his face on everything, and he doesn’t seem to be working toward anything anymore. I wanted to add that he isn’t trying as hard but that’s bullshit if I stop to think about it, because he is working his ass off in the matches, and you can tell he’s still very passionate about the “sport,” and the story he’s making.

I disliked the ending of Raw for reasons that I won’t address at this moment, but I understand what Brandon was saying in his report. But based on what we saw last night aren’t we missing a few things from this story. I mean I understand Bryan’s frustrations but he hasn’t really addressed them. He has gone from just happy to be here Daniel Bryan to suddenly being so frustrated about being held back that he turns. I’ve wanted some hints of frustrations for months now. He should’ve been more bothered about what has been going on since the summer.

Most of the time it was Cena was speaking for him. If I missed a promo where he was serious and pissed about constantly being screwed over then, yes, you’re right I missed it. Even after he won the slammy he was all “oh, well Shawn cost me the match” and nothing ever seemed to adversely affect him.

I felt like a bad wrestling fan because my entire twitter timeline was basking in orgasmic afterglow immediately after RAW ended, and I was just like “Wut? That’s it?” But after talking it out with someone helping me understand why it left me so cold… Oh, that final segment was so, so bad. DBry’s turn was so out far out of left field as to come off as completely random. The beatdown that preceded it wasn’t very good. And the whole segment was way too slow and plodding. I have considerably more hope for the story overall, but damn, the turn itself felt so cheap.

@The NME I kinda feel for you. it’s like, to you, bryan is already over (and was already over since beating cena clean at summerslam) and we didn’t need all these complications to give him the world title. he could’ve just came there every night, beat his opponets or lost to them (doesn’t matter as long as he has a great match, and he always has a great match) and just be kept in feuds until he wins the rumble and then the title at mania or whatever.

but honestly, like brandon said, wins and losses don’t matter and only enjoying the stories does. and personally, I’m enjoying this story more than anything we had from wwe in 20-and f*cking-13! it was a f*cking weak year for stories in wwe, even when the matches were the best, and that’s why I’m enjoying this one THAT MUCH!

I for one loved the ending of Raw. The fact that Bryan is vulnerable and he needs help to beat a gang full of super tough villains makes him feel like a real person. That Cena bullshit where he can beat up the entire roster with one hand while he’s finger blasting Nikki in the other got annoying years ago.

Of course, this probably means Bryan isn’t winning the title until Wrestlemania 31, but, we should probably see a Wyatt family/Shield feud before the Shield break up, which will be amazing. And Wyatt will probably be elevated to someone to be taken serious by everyone.

If only the WWE could stick with Wyatt being the Emperor to Bryan’s Vader, we’d have one hell of a compelling storyline.

This all the way. I got the chills when Bryan knelt before Bray, both men with open arms, and then took Sister Abigail as his lord and savior. That final moment of doubt he had before the end of the show, when an enormous “Daniel Bryan” chant erupted was awesome as well. Also, there were a lot of great screenshots to be taken from that segment.

Of course, the only real problem here is WWE’s inability to commit to anything. Even though they wrote some good shit down, the characters performed it well and the fans responded positively to it, there’s about 1,57% chance that this is going to end positively for anyone involved.

@Lulzovich I suppose I still could’ve more-or-less forgiven how random the turn seemed, and how slow & tedious the entire segment was, if the turn itself wasn’t such incredibly silly melodramatic bullshit.

I don’t even know if this was a “turn”. I mean, it shouldn’t be. If anything, it’s a turn for the Wyatts who seemed to be perceived by everyone in WWE as “bad guys”, but in truth, nobody really knew what were they all about. So, in the end, they could be the faction that’ll truly destroy the corporate machine, like Bray already says all the time.

As for the melodramatic stuff… shit, I always thought that’s what big wrestling storylines just are. Over the top drama intertwined and decided with great shows of athleticism.

I’m with Lulzovich. It’s not Bryan that’s being turned, it’s the Wyatts. They want to take down the current system, which is HHH and Stephanie. If that makes Bryan a heel than the WWE Universe needs to lay off the dollar store whiteout.

Actually with all the focus on Bryan and Bray, I think you all are missing the potential storyline with Lesnar. So Brock returns and Heyman announces all hatchets are buried (and yes, thank you Paul for the continuity). Brock just wants… the WWE championship.

Wait, what? Since when does Lesnar care about championships? Lesnar is a cauliflower-eared mercenary from hell who lives off of massive paychecks and lives for the chance to shoot-murder people.

Could be wrong, could be over-optimistic, but I think Heyman and the Authority have joined forces. If I’m right, it will be fascinating whichever way it goes. If Cena beats Orton in the Oh Gawd Not This Again match at RR, you have Lesnar-Cena. But if Orton wins RR, does the Authority dump him for Brock in the next PPV? How cool would that be? How cool would champion Brock vs. challenger Bryan be at WM?

As cool as that could be, it won’t happen because there’s no way Bork wins the WWE title. That would mean that he would have to defend it at least once a month, which means that he would have to be on RAW even more, which I don’t really think Bork likes, considering that he hates being on the road. Also, I think his contract says he has a very limited amount of appearances per year or something like that, so there’s also that getting in the way of an otherwise great idea (IMO).

Wow. That… might have been the most compelling breakdown of a wrestling storyline, hell, almost ANY storyline of anything I have ever seen. Just goes to show how deep and actually thought-provoking all of this can actually be, behind the Santino/R-Truth ass grabbings and the Great Khali/Brodus Clay Bra and Panties matches. The idea that we can treat these athletes, these “heroes and villains” as people who are looking for greatness and legacies, who can succeed or fail on their own merits is kind of awesome to think about out loud, and I don’t think I could’ve ever done as well it was done here. Thanks for all the pretty words, Stroud.

oh, TheSuaveIdiot, I was waiting for you and your “did you notice the shield’s body language and dean ambrose’s freakin’ awesome break down and creep acting (especially when he sits cross-legged just to shout at punk, or kicks the title in anger, or sits outside the ring without rollins and reigns just alone biting his fingers and pulling his hair)?” to not feel alone… and here you are forgetting about it in favor for other really good stuff from FINALLY a really good show from WWE.

Dammit Brandon, credit where credit is due. This has to be your best work of the last twelve months. I would say page five was the single most enjoyable page about wrestling I’ve ever read in my life. Additionally, the punk analysis was first rate and eye opening. Keep up the good work and Happy New Year to all.

brandon is a phenomenal writer, and all he needed was some phenomenal material to show it. wrestling is usually not so complicated, or usually awful. this bryan/wyatt thing, along with all the wyatt/chikara or bryan/indy days and nxt days and whole wwe story up until now, is just that.

and I’m hoping this really “changes everything” as wyatt said, and wrestling stops being a kids show (even when it’s still PG) and just write stories that are smart and complicated like everything else on tv or in real life is, and make it directed at adults! doesn’t need cursing, blood, sex or anything of that matter… just thought provoking stuff.

The problem with using Darren Young’s sexuality in an angle isn’t just that the WWE Universe wasn’t ready, I’m not sure the LGBT community would like it. Non-wrestling people get very sensitive when serious subjects get worked into angles. The WWE has had so much heat with GLAAD and other groups, I think they’d get all sorts of shit for doing a homophobia angle–even if the “bad guy” was the homophobe.

When Young came out, my non-wrestling friends were worried that it was a work. I told them the WWE learned their lesson about messing with the LGBT community and, while they were probably using the outing to get some good publicity, they making it up, and they weren’t about to make it part of his character.